From the Stockbroker Fraud Blawg
This morning, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin sentenced Bernard Madoff to the maximum sentence of 150 years of prison for his role in a “historic” multi-billion dollar fraud.
Judge Chin stated “Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll.”
Mr. Madoff’s “error of judgment” …

From the Stockbroker Fraud Blawg
The New York Times published an informative article by Tara Siegel Bernard on December 16, 2008 that discusses a lot of the basics of mutual funds.
This is a great article for anyone who is unfamiliar with mutual funds, but who has or is considering incorporating mutual funds into their investment portfolio.
Too often, investors are misled as to key features of the investments they are sold. Having a fundamental understanding of how different investments work serves two …

From the Investment Fraud Blawg
I stumbled across an article written by Paul Sullivan that The New York Times published on January 26, 2009 that contained some useful information about estate planning.
Although the article is five months old, its content is no less important today than at the time the article was published. Unfortunately, too many people overlook the benefits of prudent (and often simple) estate planning. Many people feel that since issues tend to come up after they have died, …

From the Securities Arbitration Blawg
In a recent article published on Law.com, Sarah S. Gold and Richard L. Spinogatti conduct a thorough analysis of the issues in In re Merck & Co. Secs. Deriv. & ERISA Litig.., a Third Circuit Court of Appeals case. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in In re Merck to resolve when an investor is on inquiry notice of a potential fraud claim for purposes of determining when the statute of limitaions begins to run..
The authors note …

From the Stockbroker Fraud Blawg
It seems that each day there is another story about allegations that an investment adviser has stolen money from their clients. Yesterday, the SEC filed a complaint alleging that a New York investment adviser had bilked his clients, many of whom were terminally ill or mentally impaired, out of $6 million.
Where do you turn? The New York Times published an interesting article on June 5, 2009, discussing this issue. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has a …

From the Investment Fraud Blawg
According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. government has determined that the Social Security system will run out of money sooner than expected.
The government’s estimate is that the Medicare fund will be exhausted in 2017 and the Social Security trust fund will be insolvent in 2037. The article quotes recently appointed HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as stating “It’s a wake-up call for anyone concerned about Medicare and the health of our economy.” Politics aside, this …

From the Investment Fraud Blawg
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) has announced that it has committed more than $61 million to victims of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. The SIPC has mailed letters to 125 claimants in the SIPA liquidation proceedings. In total, there have been 8,848 customer claims filed.
The SIPC has also announced that it anticipates it will have more than $100 million by Memorial Day. The news release also stated the following recent developments:

Identification and recovery to …

From the Investment Fraud Blawg
Robert Powell of Marketwatch.com recently posted an article entitled “Inflation hits hard when you can least afford it: Four ways older Americans can deal with higher inflation rates.”
The article offers four tips for retirees and those approaching retirement. Most importantly, the article states that retirees should (1) live within their means, and (2) calculate retirement expenses. This is good advice because retirees are as guilty as many Americans for failing to properly budget and plan. In …

From the Investment Fraud Blawg
A number of sites have provided summaries of the various federal bailout programs.  This post includes links to a few of these.

New York Times, Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout
New York Times, Adding Up the Government’s Total Bailout Tab
CNNMoney.com, Bailout Tracker
Propublica.com, Eye on the Bailout
FinancialStability.gov (published by U.S. Department of the Treasury)
Subsidyscope.com

From the Investment Fraud Blawg
As reported by multiple sources including CNBC.com, the California Public Employees Retirement System stated publicly that it opposes the reelection of each of the 18 members of Bank of America’s board, including Chairman Ken Lewis.  
This should come as welcome news to Bank of America shareholders following a year in which the company (1) suffered a decline in market value of more than 80%; (2) its questionable purchase of Merrill Lynch; and, (3) possible breaches of …